AW@L Radio - Smash The State Report: Jan. 18, 2013

We cover "religious freedom," captivity of all sorts, solidarity for teachers and INM updates! Plus blocking pipelines and Grassy Narrows!

From the January 18th 2013 edition of AW@L Radio - The new office of religious freedom, that harper's government has created based on the american model is ready to start. As a piece from rabble.ca explains, this office may be a bit Orweillan - muslims were not invited to a visioning session for the office, and others who presented at the meeting called christians the most persecuted people in the world.

Next up is a demand from rabble.ca blogger and labour activist David Climenhaga for sun news commentator and general super-douche ezra levant to apologise or explain his hateful and racist commentary on the Roma community, which SunTV has tried to hide as they apply for funding from the canadian public. Climenhaga notes that unless levant and sun news respond, it will be impossible to deny certain things about levant and the so-called news organsisation (that they spew colonial and racist propaganda which works to divide possible allies who would otherwise come together in common causes).

Next up is the exciting final drive to get theSecret Trial 5 documentary funded by the hot docs - doc ignite project. This doc is in post-production and looking for some cash to finish off an important piece of media looking into canada's imprisonment and abusive treatment of 5 muslim men detained through the ultra-shady security certificates program.

We then go to an update from embedded AW@L Radio host Alex Hundert, who has been put back into the hole in the central north correctional centre in penetang ontario. Alex, an anti-colonial anti-capitalist has now been considered a security threat by the head of security and is reporting that he expects to spend the remaining time on his sentence in 24hour a day isolation, except an every other day shower, up to 20 minutes daily in the concrete yard, and spotty access to a muffled phone.

Another thing who has no respect for the rights of others is john holer, the owner of marineland near Niagara Falls. The ongoing and longterm abuse and mistreatment of imprisoned animals in the so-called amusement park has been highlighted by Marineland Animal Defense and in recent exposé by the toronto star. Niagra Falls mayor - Jim Diodati has been having a PR nightmare as he tries to protect the corporate image of his city so tourists will still give it a reason to exist.

With sad news we mark the apparent suicide of internet freedom fighter Aaron Schwartz who was being persecuted by the us government for his mad h4xor skills and for trying to build a better interweb for us all. We call out to all academics to stop publishing papers in journals which do not give free access to those articles to everyone. Knowledge is public domain!

In the 3rd story of the segment we note the OPPs recognition that violent repression of well organised (or at least well supported) social movements, such as Idle No More, is not always the best way to do things - admitting that Killing Dudley George or raiding Kanonhstaton were not have been the right way to solve disputes. We shall see how this continues...

Moving forward we highlight recent actions around Six Nations where the highway leading to Kanonhstaton was blocked for a while on an INM day of action, and this event was followed up with the visit of Haudenosaunee and their settler allies to 5 sites of development to stop work and demand proper consultation. check @tworowsociety and @mohawkWorkers on twitter for updates from Brantford, Caledonia, Cayuga, Oshweken and area!

Dan then reads to and comments on a piece calling for solidarity in the environmental justice movement. The piece is a great plea but misses that solidarity with the Indigenous Rights movement will bring environmental justice, even if the author thinks we don't have time for that (which we don't, but that's okay :)

Ruben George of the Tseil Watuth nation on the west coast gave a speech at a recent anti-pipeline protest in vancouver - fighting both the kinder-morgan pipeline and the pacific trails pipeline - Ruben George's powerful words remind us that this is not just "A First Nations Problem". On the same theme but focusing on the southern route for tar sands crude, we play a piece called Why We Blockade - prepared after actions to disrupt Keystone XL developments - Stop the Flows!!!